I keep coming back to Daet. Mainly because I know super quality people there, there’s really good and cheap places to eat, and the surf’s good. 😛

So for the past few times I’ve been there, a friend from Manila has always told me to eat at this bulalo place.
Finally after planning to do that for the past n times that I’ve been in Daet, I finally did go last Saturday after a great morning session in Bagasbas. =)

We first went to one escalante bulalohan and it was closed. It was a branch. Thank goodness the manong tricycle and our awesome local guide knew that there was another one open. When we got there, the place was packed. But the turnover was pretty fast, so I being the etchusera, quickly got us a table near the giant electricfan. (har!har!)

The place is open lunchtime until 3pm, but it’s a good idea to get there at 1130am as they told me the bulalo runs out. From hearing that, I did have pretty high expectations for the place.

So ordering time, we were 9 in the group, 6 boys and 3 girls. We ordered 4 orders of bulalo and rice. One order is enough for 2-3 persons. We did think of getting something else besides bulalalo, but nah, what’s the point? We came there for the bulalo anyway.

It arrived looking like this.
*there’s another shot of this with lotsa litid and stuff, but i can’t post it right now. haha!

First impression was like– “there’s no vegetables”, but then look at it. I mean LOOK AT IT. Look at how sinful that absolutely fukken looks like. They cook the stuff in a GIANT vat that you can see if you sit inside and do a little peep inside their kitchen. When I mean giant, it means I can fit in it. haha! Wild!

The verdict: tastes as good as it looks. Good bulalo! I scored 2 marrows from the 2 orders, because I am matakaw like that, and I really did surf and got worked a lot that morning.

Total Cost: P440 for 4 orders of bulalo, 9 orders of rice, and sprite for almost everyone. It’s one of the best cheap things I’ve eaten in my life. There yah go.

How to get there: I can’t give you directions on how to get there. I basically got a local to take me there. How? Tricycle –“manong sa escalante bulalohan po.” I think that’ll work. 😛

gill and moi after just enjoying some bulalo goodness, look at my cheeks! biggg!

————Dirty Ice Cream

We also had some happy dirty ice cream when we turned right after hopping on a tricycle. I got so excited seeing it that I asked for the tricycle to stop. The manong driver was happy enough to oblige me and we gave him free ice cream for his trouble. For 5 pesos a pop, simple joys dude!

Much thanks to one of my favorite Daet/Bagasbas locals, Jongs Binaohan for taking us there! And to Gillian (ty too for the libre ice cream), Bea, Joms and the quiet boys for eating with moi! haha!

Suffice it to say, I wasn’t really thrilled with the results, taste wise.

It needs a lot. I need to get better, like sobra.

That’s why, I’m really entertaining the idea of the Maldives thing. Just because it seems like there, I can concentrate on becoming better. Like to concentrate on solely getting better at pastry/cuisine, or whatever.

Not to mention the fortuneteller did tell me that if I left the country for work, I would be like uber successful–-like the shit. Of which I really believe, I would be. But the fact of moving away from home and leaving my family and my dog is like driving me bonkers.

But if the hotel does call me, I’ll prolly give it a good question mark in my brain and do it. I’m leaning towards it and surely it scares me shitless.

The greatest fear is that I’ll go island crazy and just I dunno jump into the ocean and swim back the Philippines kebs sa shark infested waters of the Indian Ocean.

Ahaha, hopefully, all will be better and happy and whatever. And not to mention, I believe that the salary may not be up to par. Sana, by some miracle. And I’ve often wondered why I didn’t want to go overseas. Hmm, maybe because I’m content? But I think it’s fear.

So since this is fearless year, CALL MALDIVES and LET’S GET IT ON. But I still can’t imagine New Year’s and not cooking the dinner.

Still no schedule yet with the culinary chuva, although I have blocked my vacation dates t May 8-11, 2008 bound for Cebu! I will so culinary tour it there, with maximum control. Seriously, the thought of the lechon de leche that my mom is currently taking home from Cebu is enough to make me vomit. And that’s why I haven’t had my dinner yet, I want to vomit with the thought of Cebu lechon (Note to all Cebuanos: I am not saying that Lechon de Cebu is not uber wow. It is. But a bad case of acid reflux after eating the lechon, has made me UBER wary, and I mean UBER.)

Basically, I tested the shortbread cookie recipe that I found and tweaked. It looks good and tastes good, I have some issues with being smoother, but that’s my fault because I suck at hurriedly rolling out dough.

So here are the cookies after being baked:

Then, i made the frosting. I found this powdered sugar frosting recipe and I used it. It was okay, but was frustrating for what I had in mind. And I felt like a stupid amateur making these, gah, I haven’t frosted/decorated something for so long. I wonder if I even know how to pipe now. (No pictures of the things, because I hated them.)

I’m making royal icing next or actually for this particular project, we’ll go with a fondant, since I think I need to stamp a design onto a fondant and even royal icing wouldn’t look good with this one. Now, how to stamp…
Gah, my last foray into fondant icing was laughable. Seriously, parang kinakarir ko na itong pastry ah.

I’ve decided to sell these products, as soon as maging masipag ako enough to cost everything down.Weh, I even made a multiply blog! ahaha, dun na lang daw, although I do own http://www.cookieplease.com, but yeah, good luck.

Note to self:

March 13 is the bakery thing I’m going to attend and hopefully it will rock. Monday is the final interview for the Dasmarinas chef job, may it be flexitime and may it be Monday-Fridays only, and may the pay be good. Bala na ang batman. The universe is throwing stuff at me left and right, good thing I have big arms. 🙂

I’m also trying to join a writing contest, it’s frustrating the hell out of me. But hopefully may mapiga sa utak ko. It’s funny how my writing style just isn’t as coherent as it was back then. I was the queen of feature writers for a year in my district, then I sucked at regionals because I wasn’t in the mood. Gah, I need to get my groove back!

Bakasyon na!

———

Recipes Below:

Shortbread cookies from Best Recipes’ website

1

cup

butter, softened

3

tbl

cornstarch

1/4

cup

sugar

1 3/4

cup

all purpose flour

Process: Mix everything up. Freeze, roll out. Bake at a 350F or 180C oven for about 8-20 minutes depending on how really frozen your dough is. * I added vanilla extract because it seems like a good idea, 1/4 tsp.

moi

My name is Joko. The age is late 20s, a culinary school graduate, i trained in pastry in one of the 5 star hotels in the Philippines, I manage a resort, and do some sort of catering on the side. I co-own a desserts business that sells in a store in Trinoma. I belong to an awesome food group, and I like to eat out a lot, usually at the same places, but I'm now trying to be more "adventurous".

I would probably be the laziest food blogger you can find, and I will most probably update most of this blog from the trusty phone.

If it doesn't look good in my camera phone, it might not be good. So don't kill me if the photos are bleh. We will work on getting our sh*t together and buy a camera. Patience is a virtue, and i know, time is gold. :)

So drop me a line, tell me what you think, or tell me if you have any brilliant suggestions on what and where I can eat or get a decent meal.

On a side note: I seriously wanted to drop the Chef part in the whole "undercover chef" but i've decided, I will stick to it until it galls me enough that I will cook something and sell it to the masses, be famous and be on tv.